Do you consider yourself an armchair general? Is your television permanently tuned to the History Channel? If so, you might be interested in Flames of War.

Flames of War, a World War II tabletop miniatures game published by Battlefront Miniatures, allows players to choose, assemble, paint, and deploy an army chosen from eight combatants in World War II: Germany, England, the United States, Italy, and the USSR, along with Romania, Hungary, and Finland. There are hundreds of 15 mm (approximately 1:100 scale) model sets to choose from, representing hundreds of units of troops from the various combatants during the Early, Mid, or Late periods of the war. Players can then recreate any of the battles of World War II, thus experiencing the war from the point of view of a front-line commander.

Turn-based play makes the game easy to learn. An army’s chance of success is based upon unit strengths and weaknesses (infantrymen are more fragile than tanks, for example), upon the rolls of dice, and of course upon the wiliness and experience of the general. Players agree beforehand on a maximum point value for the armies, and on whether or not a particular scenario is to be played.

We’ve had our eye on this line for a long time. The sheer number of available models is mind-boggling, and allows for endless what-if scenarios — what if Lt-Col Frost and the 2nd Parachute Battalion had not managed to elude the Germans and dig in at Arnhem? Would the Allies still have won the day? Could the Allied invasion of Holland have been turned back by the Germans with a little more luck?

The game is designed primarily for two-player battles, each lasting about two hours. Painting on these miniatures tends to be a bit more perfunctory than on the (much larger) Warhammer figures; remember that your Flames of War miniatures are going to be seen primarily from a distance of three feet or more, and that crazy attention to detail is not required (though it is awe-inspiring when you see it). So building and painting your army takes less fiddly work, allowing you to get into the battle-gaming aspect more quickly.

We’ll be expanding our selection over time, and we can special-order anything that we don’t have in stock. Come in and pick up a catalogue!